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2008 South Ossetia War tanks and losses

This is a discussion on 2008 South Ossetia War tanks and losses within the Army & Security Forces forum, part of the Global Defense & Military category; I've been pondering this for some time. From what I've read, various editions of the T-72 were the most numerous ...


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Old April 18th, 2010   #1
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2008 South Ossetia War tanks and losses

I've been pondering this for some time. From what I've read, various editions of the T-72 were the most numerous tank during the Russo-Georgian conflict. Has anyone come across numbers of T-80s and T-90s that participated?
Also, were the majority of destroyed tanks lost in combat with other tanks, or did ATGMs, aircraft, and/or artillery claim a plurality of kills?

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Old April 18th, 2010   #2
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No T-80 or T-90 participated. Both forces used the T-72 in frontline units.

Some T-55 and T-62 were there, but not in direct combat as far as I'm aware.
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Old April 18th, 2010   #3
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Weren't some Georgian reserve formations with T-55s either hit by artillery or air strikes?
Can't remember where I read that.

From what I have read the Georgian tank units suffered equally from poor coordination with their own infantry and thus got caught by russian tanks and tank hunter teams in urban terrain as well as from artillery and air strikes later on.
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Old April 18th, 2010   #4
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A Russian T-62 unit engaged some Georgian T-72s. I have a report called iirc The Tanks of August, I'll dig it up.

EDIT: It's available right here, but only in Russian unfortunately. http://www.cast.ru/comments/?id=351 I'll translate and summarize any relevant parts myself in a little bit.

Ok so on August 8th 3 Georgian T-72s opened fire on BMP-2s at the entrance to the Russian peacekeeping battallions camp. The BMP-2s were destroyed, with response fire from RPGs disabling one of the T-72s and forcing back the other two.

Three more T-72s were killed by South Ossetian forces in the center of Tshinvali, one of them personally by the head of state security of South Ossetia, by RPG-7s.

At least three T-72s were abandoned by the 42nd Infantry Btln of the Georgian forces, along with other armored vehicles and equipment, when Russian Su-25s airstrike killed over 20 and wounded many more.

Two Georgian tanks were abandoned on August 8th on the Zars road, tanks No 110 and 125, and were detonated by Russian troops.

Two Russian T-72s from the 141st Independent Tank Bltn broke through to the peacekeepers camp, and participated in combat there. One of the tanks was destroyed, the other ran out of ammo by nightfall of August 9th.

On August 10th a T-62M of the 71st MRR, 42nd MRD was destroyed for unclarified reasons. (other sources talk about a tank engagement between some Georgian T-72s and the T-62Ms, with 1-2 Georgian tanks destroyed in the fight)

During the advance movement of the 693rd MRR, a T-72B (No 321) and two BMP-2 were destroyed by RPG fire from Georgian forces from the 2nd Infantry Brigade, and some reservist formation.

4 T-72s (No's 206, 207, 208, 209) were captured at the Senaki base of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, by the 693rd MRR. 2 were destroyed on the spot, 2 evacuated to Abkhazia.

An unspecified number of military equipment was captured on 3 Georgian Army bases near Gori. Presumably the bulk of captured tanks was from there. Around 20 T-72s were destroyed near Gori after being captured, the rest were evacuated. 65 tanks were captured after the end of hostilities.

Last edited by Feanor; April 18th, 2010 at 09:49 PM.
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Old April 18th, 2010   #5
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Wow, fantastic find, Feanor. And thank you for the translation. I'm a fine transliterator of Cyrillic, but have zero vocab.

Something that jumps out is the numbers of Georgian AFVs left behind to be destroyed at the leisure of Russian forces. This little snippet also showcases the potency of the RPG-7, which isn't underestimated by any means, but really shines against second-tier MBTs.
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Old April 18th, 2010   #6
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With modern warheads the RPG-7 is comparable to the RPG-29 and 32. The real question is what warheads the troops were using.
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